To rent not own a house now I have a child?

[CharlieMumma]

I rent my house privately with my dp and our ds. We don't earn enough to be able to get a big enough mortgage for a 3 bed house. So until we get pay rises and save a big deposit we are renting. I think It definitely has positives as webcam move easily for schools etc.

Have had a few comments from other friends who own and are married saying buying is best what about the security of your children you could get chucked out if landlord want house back and in the future what will u pass on to them etc?

Is renting really that reasonable?

We rent since having the children. We had a one-bed flat that we had a mortgage on - stayed until dc1 was nearly 2, but couldn't afford a bigger place in the areas we wanted, couldn't sub-let as had bought with HA deposit. So now we rent. We live in a lovely house in a beautiful area in a catchment for outstanding schools. We couldn't afford to buy here, maybe if we inherit or win the lottery, but definitely renting suits us best for the forseeable future.

Cost of housing is crazy in this part of the world and the rent we pay isnt cheap, in an ideal world we would have saved up a lot more before having the kids, but we didn't.

I value living in a nice area over the security of owning. I think it is much better for the kids to go to a good school than us own a house.

I rent, would need £100k for a 20% deposit and fees round here for a 3 bed. It's pie in the sky for us! It drives me insane when people keep on at us to buy. I simply can't imagine where they think we would get the £ from.

I love our rented house! And I love our landlords. And I love knowing that as our lives change in the future (new jobs, kids moving out, baby getting older), we have flexibility.

On the other hand...
My DH owned a house with his First Wife, in another part of the country. They had to move for work reasons.

Now, years later, and that house is a nightmare for me. It won't sell for enough to pay off the mortgage, which we make payments on every month. We've been trying to rent it out, but no luck (it is in a very remote, but beautiful, country location). At one time it felt like an investment - but right now, it is a liability. Last winter the pipes burst and we spent thousands of pounds on home repair.

Last week, our heating in the rental home stopped working. The landlord sorted it out and paid for it.

Renting is fine as long as you have very good pensions. To me home ownership is about paying off a mortgage so that we own somewhere that we can live rent free in our retirement. That is why lots of people see home ownership as the holy grail. I wouldn't be able to afford to pay rent whilst living on a pension.

In terms of security if we were to lose our jobs, we have unemplyment insurance which would pay the mortgage for a year whilst we either found other work or sold the house.

Also it took a really long time to sell our house and we didn't really make any money on it - lucky to not be in negative equity really. It became a real burden, as dd was getting older and we were still living in two rooms. At least here we have the freedom to move if we need to.

I totally agree with you op - why buy and get sucked into buying an overpriced home.

Many people who do own bought at the top of the market and now have no hope of selling unless at a loss.

Bide your time, prices are falling and houses will be affordable again

Like you I am fed up of the snobbery of people who look down on you because you are only renting. Many people with houses are remortgaged up the the eyeballs and once prices fall and interest rates rise many will lose their homes.

Morebeta - that's a really good point about moving for jobs etc. I guess the only problem is when u own and retire u are likely to have paid off the mortgage so be mortgage free - if we rent we will always have rent to pay.

Also good point about the nursing home etc that doesn't seem to have occurred to my friends who seem obsessed with the fact they can pass it on to their children!

What vivipru said. It is stupid to buy a property unsuited to your needs just to satisfy the modern British notion that you are an inherent failure if you haven't bought an overpriced shoe box.

We are long term renters. We are going to buy a 2 bed flat, as that is what we can afford. We aren't going to live in it though. We'll rent it out.

And actually saying renting is cheaper than buying is not the case (well not in my area) I am currently buying a 5 bed house with only a 15% deposit and then mortgage will be £1200 a month, not that different to rent for that type of property. Maybe because we live in an expensive area full stop but I just feel that we are paying towards something iykwim rather than paying for someone elses investment.

Houses can be passed onto children as long as it it done early enough

I think you are doing the sensible thing. I don't have children yet or own a home. However, in about 10 years DP and I might be able to afford a flat fairly easily. However, we may have two children then and I don't know if a family home would be within our bidgets. This is very differnt from previous generations. My parents just bought a bigger house each time they had a new baby! They weren't poor but weren't rich either.

The positive of this is that my children will go to schols in better areas. My parents could only affrod to do this in inner city areas, but we can rent in some quite nice places. We are not saying we will never buy, we just won't do it until it suits our family and financial situation.

Houses can be passed onto children as long as it it done early enough

YANBU. your friends are a bit misguided.

DP and I currently rent our house off my mum (i admit i am in a more fortunate stability situation than most tenants). we actually have enough money for a deposit on a small 3 bed house in our area but the fact is we know we would outgrow it in less than 5 years and with interest on mortgage rates we would actually end up losing money when it came to selling it. we have instead looked at investing our money over the next 2-3 years and saving up more so that we can buy a larger 3 bed house that we plan to be in for the next 10-20 years.

also in that time if we need money for a new car etc we haven't tied all our savings up in a mortgage and saving up for a few more months would not be a big deal.

also to get approved for a mortgage at present i would have to change my working hours to full time. i know many women do it and i'm not downing it but it's not something that i feel is best for my family, and, at the risk of being flamed, i know i would not be happy working full time. in a couple of year DPs wages will have increased so this won't be a problem.

IMO buying a home atm is only worth it if you have a large deposit/can buy outright or if you plan on being there for 10 years or more.

You're over looking the small matter of that 15% deposit though. Where is that supposed to come from? On paper we could afford the repayments on a very hefty mortgage, but no one will give us it as 1) Dh is self employer 2) we don't have a big lump sum to put down.

Should have said really the friend that's convinced owning is the only option bought her house when she was 19 with her now husband they had a 95% mortgage and were given the £5000 deposit from family so no wonder they could buy!! How things have changed in less than 10 years - don't think 5 k would get me far!

CharlieMumma - "I guess the only problem is when u own and retire u are likely to have paid off the mortgage so be mortgage free - if we rent we will always have rent to pay."

This is a very fair point and I have nothing against buying a house and me and DW plan to do so once the children have gone (or before) for exactly this reason. However, what we want to definitley avoid is being stuck in a house that is far too big for us, costs us to mainatin and we dont really need.

This is the situation so many old people are in. Their house becomes a liability that sucks cash out of them to maintain. I know several old peoplE round where I live in huge Georgian houses that live in squalor in one room unable to afford to heat or maintain their pride and joy which is falling down around them. They woulD be far better to sell.

Incidentally, old people living alone in 3/4 bed houses is also a good part of the national 'housing shortage'. Families living in flats with DCs while their parentS live in a big house. It needs to be the other way round. Problem is that houses are tax free investments and have become treated as pensions.

YANBU and I think your friends are being very rude tbh.

We bought our 3 bed semi 3 years ago, but we only had the deposit for this place because we bought our previous 2 homes in the days of 100% mortgages when prices were going through the roof and we made profit on thoses houses without lifting a finger. It was like Monopoly money.

We have a HUUUGE mortgage, because we borrowed as much as we could, with hindsight probably too much for us to easily manage. Both my and DH salary has been frozen for the last couple years and for the forseeable future too. At the moment we have made the decision to switch our mortgage to interest only, primarily to allow me to go back to work part time after mat leave. Even though we are dicing with negative equity.

So yes, we own our 3 bed semi, but are in quite a precarious position. So who has been the more sensible, you or me?

I'm going to go away and cry now ;)

Yes yes I agree about savng the deposit, I meant on a monthly outgoings thing rent and mortgage payments are about on par around here. We are in an unusual situation though, I have very cheap rent and grim gritted teeth saving to 2.5 years has given us a deposit, we have had a massive stroke of luck as Dh got a really big promotion and wage rise so that has enabled us to do this. Ironis that we own between us two rental properties (which are mine) and one foreign property (which is DHs) and we rent our own home. It is just good timing for us as we are expecting dc5 in April and we need a bigger house.

However, without this good fortune we would have rented a bigger house, it does make sense for the OP. Like I said without a bit of good luck or generous parents I have no idea how people can even get started without putting their life on complete hold for years and years.

Morebeta - that is all such a good point! Buying somewhere smaller when children have grown up and gone is a very good plan and like u said when ur getting older u don't want to be stuck in a huge 'family' home!

I'm feeling better already about renting!

Despite being a homeowner myself now, I genuinely don't understand the British obsession with homeownership. Take it from someone who knows, its not much fun for a child when their parents have a much bigger mortgage that they can afford, so there is never any money to enjoy life, and there is no contingency plan so when life throws one of its curveballs at you and you can't pay the mortgage, you eventually end up homeless. Rented accomodation would have been much more security than living in a homeless shelter for a couple of years. And breathe.

Brandysoaked, renting can be cheaper than buying in many cases.

Your rent might be simelar to your mortgage at £1200, but what about when you have to replace the boiler, the hot water tank, the radiators,fix problems with any of those things, fix water pipes, fix a leak in the roof, redecorate, replace the carpets, replace the kitchen, replace the bathroom. All things that will need to be done at some point in a lifetime of living in the same house.

I would love to have a ll to pay for some of that stuff for us, especially as they always seem to come at the worst times.

I have been told on MN before that I am lucky to own because at least it's my own property and I'm not lining someone else's pockets, but I can't really see what is so great about that. Especially compared to council tenants that have more security than we do. And when you take into account the fact that a house can easily be taken away to pay for care when we get old.

I want to get rid of this house and have fun spending the money before we get to that stage. The idea that dh and I would have gone through life struggling to pay for a mortgage and upkeep of a house and end up recieving exactly the same care as someone who has rented and been able to spend their lifetimes disposable income on holidays instead of house repairs really pisses me off.

If you want to rent and still leave something to your children, you can set up a savings account.

We rent at the moment, for a number of reasons, that I think apply to a lot of people. The main one is that we spend £1000 on rent a month on a house worth about £400k. A mortgage on a house £250k would be about £1500 a month, and £1250 of that would be interest. In effect we are better off renting and saving that £250 a month, which we do - it goes into an investment vehicle.

I find it hard to get my head around, and earn to own the ground beneath my feet, but I understand the maths. And also the fact that we have no deposit. The only way to eventually lower the mortgage rate is to keep on saving!

It is my goal to own a property, but only when the figures stack up. My mum has exactly the same attitude as your friends, but seems to overlook the fact that they bought a five bed detached country house for £52k now worth 10x that.... car parking spaces around here sell for £100k

Anyone old enough to have lived through the last recession and the spate of repossessions that accompanied it should have been disabused of the idea that house ownership always means security.

We were lucky enough to buy during the slump and get a low mortgage so for us house ownership is relatively safe: the difference between the low mortgage and the cost of renting is enough to allow for a repairs and emergencies budget.

My brother has a mortgage which is just about what he can afford: if something major goes wrong he is going to be pretty well stuck.

should have looked over my post..

a house worth £250k

and yearn to own the ground

Need more coffee.....

I am watching my grandfather who owned a house for most of his life, he recently sold it and the money is being spent on his care. Owning a home does not seem to have made any real difference to his life.

We did own and it was one of the things that caused us more upset in our lives than anything else. We bought where we could afford and hated it and we're then stuck. We needs to get out so we moved and lost every penny of our savings and then some in the process .

We now rent and live in a larger, nicer house in a better area than my above average salary could afford. Perhaps because we have a good income and can afford to pick and choose we have never been forced out of a property. The only way we would have to leave our current property is if they sold. As we have saved money renting we could ironically now afford to buy a house which iS beyond our price range as we have a large deposit waiting in our savings account.

I love the fact we are not tied anywhere, we feel free and yet we have security . My dd is in no way deprived because she lives in a rented home. She can decorate her room, have animals etc.